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Other critters in our garden |
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Critters that don't neatly fit into one of the other wildlife pages on this
site eventually find their way to this catch-all page. Maybe I'll get more
scientific about it at some point. For now, it's just a showcase for the
marvellously diverse garden lifeforms.
Mantids
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One morning, I lamented to Amy that we hadn't seen praying mantises in our
garden this year. Later that day, while I was out puttering with 2-year-old
Benny, he exclaimed "Look, Papa, a grasshopper!". And sure enough, he had
spotted our first mantis for the year.
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Later that day, we'd find another one, most likely a Chinese mantis (Tenodera
aridifolia).
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...and yet another the next day. This one is most likely a youngster, a molt or
two away from adulthood. At any rate, we hope they enjoy their stay, and make plenty
of babies...
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Wouldn't you know it, once again it's Benny (now age four) who spotted the first
mantis of the year - but he didn't know it was a mantis, because it was so tiny
(no more than half an inch). This
youngster was struggling on the surface of a small tub pond. Not wanting it to
meet with the resident frog's tongue, I rescued it from its predicament. I'm
glad to see they'll be returning this year. |
Cicadas
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We were supposed to witness the massive emergence of periodic 17-year
cicadas this year, but they never hit our area (not surprisingly, I guess,
since our neighborhood was built in the last 17 years). Annual dog-day
cicadas, on the other hand, are reasonably abundant. I encountered the one
in these photos (Tibicen chloromera) on a flowering okra, where I
took the belly shot; it then flew over to a small maple, where I got the
larger portrait.
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Ants
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Our garden, like most others around the world, is home to millions of ants.
I'm sure there are many species - little, big, red, brown, black - but they're
usually too busy marching about for me to take their mugshot. This one caught
my attention one summer afternoon by the pond - her compatriots kept crashing off
of the bordering rocks into the water, and struggling their way back out. At
first I thought they were just clumsy, but then I realized that they were probably
drinking, or using the water to cool down. The shiny bands are more noticeable
in the photo than they were with the plain eye.
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Earwigs
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And what bug page would be complete without everybody's favorite - the charming
earwig? This dandy is most likely a European earwig (Forficula auricularia),
and was one of a pair found hiding in some garden foliage.
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Lacewings and co.
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We're always happy to see lacewings in the garden. They have a solid reputation
as "good bugs", keeping populations of pest insects under control. Unfortunately,
we don't observe them very often. This is a fairly typical specimen, which happened
to sit down on the vinyl fencing around our veggie garden (which is where we
see them most often, for some reason.
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Eggs and stuff
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Wow, it's a Christmas tree in summer! Actually, it's just our maple, which
was attacked quite decoratively by maple gall mites (most likely, Vasates
quadripedes) one year. The red blobs are
galls, out of which baby mites will hatch. I never had the patience to sit and
watch till they did. No sign of galls the next year.
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Visitors to this page have left the following comments| Richard | Aug 17, 2006 | I live in Arizona at the 4,100 foot level and have way to many rabbits, What can I plant that the might leave alone and not eat.
Thanks Richard |
| Connie | Apr 01, 2007 | I'm looking for pictures of the wildlife which ravage my gardens and for which I have to plant defensively ~ deer, raccoons & porcupines. Are they not a problem in your garden?
Those we've managed to avoid thus far - it's rabbits, voles, and the odd groundhog that make up the wild mammalian population of our grounds. |
| samantha | Mar 31, 2008 | wow i love these insects.
they are beautiful!! |
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Last modified:
June 10, 2007
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